


Paint My Skin With Your Colours

by SacredMorningStar



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Adorable, Building Relationship, Caleb is uncomfortable with touch, F/M, Fluff, Jester is an artist, Painting, Skin Painting, Teacher AU, Widojest - Freeform, learning to love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27150760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SacredMorningStar/pseuds/SacredMorningStar
Summary: Jester and Caleb love each other, they adore each other. Professor Widogast loves Jester but has a lot of work to do in trusting her and fighting through some of his bad habits. One of them is his aversion to touch and physical contact. Jester is teaching some of her students about painting on different surfaces but there is one surface she'd never painted on before. Now it's time to work on both of those while giving Caleb thank yous for being so patient.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Kudos: 43





	Paint My Skin With Your Colours

When Professor Caleb had first felt his crush on Jester he had been almost certain she would never return it. He had been happy for the art teacher to simply be a colleague and to see where they could go from there. He taught the arcane, from spellcasting to components to the skills to learn faster, while Jester taught everything colourful and bright; a little magic in her own lessons to help preserve the pieces. Most had thought it something frivolous or a waste of time, especially for those skilled in certain arcane arts, but Caleb couldn’t understand where those thoughts come from. He used to be. His thoughts had once been like those so focused on the arcane. Jester had quickly corrected him on that one, showing him the beauty of her work, how she could make a painting that looked real, where it seemed to have life inside it, and for each piece Jester had showed him he thought something would move inside each one.

Her scolding him had been part of what started their relationship, what had him beginning to spend his evenings with the artist, her workspace somewhere peaceful for him to assess work. It became somewhat of a routine for them both, Jester painting some new project or showing Caleb the work of her students while Caleb studied or marked his student’s work. The soft humming and sounds of brush on paper had been oddly comforting and Caleb had been incredibly careful not to get his student’s work covered in paint or to disturb Jester’s students’ pieces. Jester had this way of befriending anyone, of taking anyone in, of welcoming everyone, but Caleb had seemed to be one of the few that lingered; happy to sit in silence while she vented or chattered away.

That would have been enough for Caleb, to have that routine, have a friendship that just seemed to be happy to sit in silence together. It seemed though, life had a funny way of changing things, making things different, and one night Jester offered to take the professor out to dinner. Her reasoning had been that Caleb had always been so on edge, so tightly wound up, and she wanted to see him truly relax. It had been the most fun Caleb had in a long time, compared to what Caleb usually called fun, but he was sure that was because it had been Jester that had taken him out for a dinner.

That dinner then became a weekly habit. Caleb couldn’t allow Jester to be the only one to pay for a meal for them both and so they started having weekly ‘not-a-date’ meals where they would forget the worst of the week, which turned to movie nights, to dancing, and slowly changed form ‘not-a-date’ to a kiss, hand holding, passing touches in the halls, lingering glances and stolen kisses. Caleb had began to wonder when the dream might finish, when reality might kick in and Jester would drop him, but it seemed Jester was gripping to him and not letting him go. She had learned quickly of Caleb’s discomfort with touch, at his way of walling off others, at a way of protecting himself from something traumatic in his past but she was careful not to push. She would give him time, she loved who he was now not whatever happened to his past, but she hoped at some point he could tell her and how it involved the bandages up his arms; clearly all part of whatever the trauma was.

Over months, their bond grew stronger, Caleb growing more confident in showing their relationship around the school halls, once again after a small argument between the pair when Caleb had challenged Jester to why she was with him; especially when there was Fjord who clearly had a crush on her. That had left him with an angry Jester for a few hours, sitting with him at lunch but refusing to do more than sit close, until she couldn’t bear to be angry with him any longer and just after two she found him after his lesson and enveloped him in a hug.

“I love you, all of you, even the bits you’re not ready to share yet.” She’d held him tighter than any other time and had been so glad to feel his arms around her. “Don’t you dare tell me again I’d be better with anyone else. It’s _you_ I want. I can make my own choices for what’s _good for me._ ”

That had quickly silenced any arguments Caleb could make, he could swear she was crying, and when she looked up he could see the angry tears in her eyes as she almost glared up at him. He cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead gently as he wiped away the tears from her cheeks not realising how much it would have upset her. He’d had a lot of making up to do, he swore to never see her like that because of him, and he bought her some special paints that he specially enchanted to bring life to anything she painted; not making it real but giving activity and life within the painting. To say she had been grateful for the paints was an understatement as she quickly secured them away into a special cupboard she locked away in her classroom.

Caleb, although great with the arcane, was not the best with people and Jester had known that going into the relationship, and it was something that Jester had been hoping she could help with. She had noticed his aversion to touch, especially gentle touch, and it had been why she’d been so much more eager to always have some form of contact with him when they sat together. She would lean herself against him a little, would lightly rub his foot with hers, would lay a hand against his arm or leg, would take every opportunity to hug him, to touch his waist, to just have some kind of contact. She had noticed at first that he jumped or tensed with each touch, especially unexpected ones, but slowly he seemed to grow used to touches while time he took to return an embrace grew shorter. Nothing in their relationship had been physically intimate, both preferring to take their time with it, but Jester was hoping Caleb might be ready to begin to test those limits.

She had a few ideas with the paints, something she wanted to do specially with Caleb, and a way to test her skills with paints. She wanted to paint a beautiful piece on his back, a gorgeous sunset over her home of Nicodranas, hoping that it might help with some of his touch aversion. Brushes and brushstrokes were that gentle feeling Caleb had been so uncertain of, like he didn’t deserve someone to be gentle with him, but they had been working together and she had been so proud of his progress. She waited for lunch, for when they could both sit together in the teacher’s lounge to talk with him, to see what he would think, to see if she could win him over on it. She settled beside him, tucking into her lunch, something be had brought for her, settling beside him and tucking into the meal enjoying the peace for a moment before speaking up.

“So, I have a few ideas, something I wanted us to do this weekend. Something different, something I think might help you but you would be welcome to say no. I just wanted to ask, I know asking is important, with anything like this, and I know it’s going to sound very strange but just…it was something I have been thinking on.” Jester rushed her words, letting her mind roam trying to explain as she saw him looking over to her.

“Jester whatever it is you want to do I am sure it will not be bad. You are very patient, incredibly caring, you do not need to worry about what I’d think of it.” Caleb smiled softly to her and had taken her hand gently to soothe her clearly worried mind.

“Well, I have been doing some studies with alternative canvases. I realised that even though I am teaching my students some I haven’t painted on certain surfaces. I haven’t really painted on skin, not really pushing what I can do, so maybe you would be willing to let me on you?” She fluttered her eyes at him and smiled softly. “I’d use the special paints you bought me and make it look really pretty. Would be super careful too, if anything gets too much you could tell me, and we would totally stop.”

It took a moment for Caleb to figure out what Jester had just asked of him. She’d always had a roundabout way of asking for things, but this was certainly something different and very unexpected. He looked to her seeing her fluttering her eyelashes at him staring at him with those big, beautiful eyes. His face flashed from confusion, to deep thought, to a soft smile as he looked to his love taking her hand gently.

“We can certainly try it, I would say we test skin first, make sure I don’t have a bad reaction to it before you do my entire back.” He spoke softly and brushed a thumb across the back of her hand. “So long as it will be this once, for now, then we can try it. I don’t, I can’t, I won’t guarantee we will get a whole piece done but we can certainly try it.”

He would be willing to push himself, to test himself, to see how far they could take it. Jester had been good for the anti-social arcane mage, bringing him out of his shell, shattering some of the doubts he’d been holding for so long, had helped the wizard see every strength he had hidden away that he had never thought of. He could rarely say no to her, not when it was something that should be so simple, and he just hoped that whatever it was she planned was going to be as easy as she made it sound. She looked out for what was best for him while he would keep her safe from any of her ideas that were a little more reckless and more dangerous. He felt strangely nervous knowing Jester was going to be painting his body, that he would be laying or sitting without a shirt on, that she would be spending however long he could take staring at his skin, seeing the marks and scars that he was sure littered his skin; his arms riddled and yet to be revealed to her.

He had a few days to prepare, a few days just to try and get himself ready, to fight down the nerves he had over her seeing more of his body. He hadn’t really shown her much of his body, choosing to wear sleepwear as they started sharing a bed and trying to avoid showing his body off as much as he could. He knew his lessons were a little more distracted, were a little more scattered, his mind trying to have solutions and think of anything that could happen before it did, to calculate the risks of exposing his skin against the likelihood of any reactions he would get, a calculated risk was no risk.

In the days before their painting session, the time taken by Caleb to slowly begin exposing some skin to Jester, slightly different shirts, some shirt buttons not all done, slowly rolling up sleeves to expose more of his bandages, little things he hadn’t thought would be so important before, and let Jester test a little of the paint at the top of his back where he could easily hide it should there be a bad reaction. He had hoped there’d be no reaction, even with his anxiousness he wanted to push himself, to test his own limits, to push past them, and he knew it would bring a smile to Jester if he let her play with her artistic flare on his back. They left the paint on his pack, his shirt covering it once it was dry, and they left it for the lest few hours of the school day the day before Jester planned to paint him. Just the small brush strokes had sent strange thrills through Caleb’s body, a hint that maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he worried, and at the end of the day, when all the students had gone home and just the professors and teachers were there, he felt relief knowing there was no bad reaction. He hoped it was a good sign, some kind of sign form whatever smiled upon Jester, that maybe once he could let someone look at him and not instantly think of everything wrong with him.

He could see there was an excitement coming from Jester the morning of the painting session and Caleb couldn’t help the soft smile as he watched her busy herself preparing the space. She had stayed with him the night before and had began to clear a space they could use in Caleb’s library, a space he could distract himself with study while she painted if it made it easier, and he spent the morning finishing off marking work of his students and planning lessons for the week ahead.

“You ready? Think you’ll be alright?” She lay a gentle hand on his back leaning over his shoulder as she looked at what he was writing. “I think I might have everything ready, even made sure I wouldn’t make any mess in your library, I know your books are important.”

“I think we start, see how long we can go, make sure we stop to eat; we are both terrible for that.” Caleb looked over his shoulder seeing a large blanket lay over the floor with the paints and a variety of brushes placed in a semi-circle; book piles carefully either covered or moved to keep them clean. “You have come far more prepared than I expected.”

Jester frowned deeply hearing the last part and pushed him a little, not sure if it was an insult or a compliment or teasing, making Caleb smile and chuckle as he moved to settle on the blanket; sitting up as he began to take his shirt off. His arms were still covered in layers of bandages, secured tightly as an old habit, but he slowly worked out of the shirt he’d put on until it pooled at his waist and tossed it to the side. The air in the room was warm but Caleb felt an anxious chill run down his spine as he heard Jester moving around behind him and sat down; lightly wiping off his back to prepare the skin. There was a soft gasp from Caleb as he felt her warmer hands and the warmed cloth against his skin before she dried his back off and kissed his shoulder softly feeling him tensing a little. She kept her hands on his shoulders and one of his hands came to meet hers before he pulled a book into his lap ready to study.

At first, Jester focused on mixing the paints, on looking at the sketch she’d made as a plan, on Caleb’s tense form checking on him as he tried to focus on the text before him. She began slowly, carefully, taking her time to paint the main lines while watching Caleb’s reactions making sure to note any parts of his back that he seemed to react bad to, moved more carefully around those areas, and started to get the colours of the sunset in before pulling back to let some of the paint dry on his back.

Caleb had, at first, focused solely on the book he had tucked into his lap, a tome of Ancient Spellcraft that held spells many had lost or forgotten; an incredibly rare find he had slowly been working on. He had been trying to learn some of the spells, to expand his own knowledge, but the gentle strokes of the brush against his back seemed to draw him out of his focus enough to distract him. He felt the brush catch a few sensitive spots, one made him tense ready to feel negative thoughts wash over, only to feel the brush move away to a point which made him gasp. He felt a strange thrill rush over his skin, goosebumps beginning to rise on his body, a strangely pleasurable touch at the stroke of the brush. He had almost been expecting his skin to react adversely to the strokes, like how skin reacts to feeling something crawling on it, but the pleasurable thrill had been a pleasant surprise. The featherlight brushstrokes seemed to grow prolonged and firmer strokes as Jester worked her way from the top of his shoulders down to his back. When Jester stopped he was almost disappointed, the gentle strokes almost feeling like the teasing kisses against his neck Jester would sometimes do, and he shifted trying to hide how unexpectedly stimulating the strokes had been.

It was time for food, for a break, they had already been there for three hours, and as they moved Caleb tried to see it only to find mirrors quickly turned or covered to prevent him from seeing. Jester had ordered the food from the nearby inn, one they had been at in their early dates, and had managed to win over the cook and barkeep in delivering it to their home. It had been unexpected, and Caleb smiled softly as Jester seemed to rush around the table setting everything ready, putting a towel over the chair Caleb was to sit on and plating up the meals before she offered him to sit. He couldn’t help the soft chuckle seeing her refuse his help and do everything, him trying to help set the table only for her to slap his hands.

“Are you doing alright? Everything going well with you so far?” They’d been part way through their meal when she reached out checking on him. “I know this, I know it’s not the easiest, but you’ve been doing amazing.”

“It’s been fine, surprisingly it’s not been as bad as I thought it would be, you’ve been exceptionally light and gentle with me. I think we might have something good here, perhaps you will be able to finish it.” Caleb sat forward in the chair hoping not to ruin the painting on his back. “It’s been rather different and so far it has been something more pleasant. I cannot wait to see your completed work.”

Jester smiled brightly and almost clapped her hands excitedly as she heard Caleb and lay a hand on his. She’d been worrying he had been burying his real reactions, that he did what Caleb did best and ignored his own reactions, but she could see he was being honest with her. She hadn’t shown him the sketch, hadn’t told him what she’d planned, and was growing more excited at showing him the end result of her work knowing how much he had enjoyed her paintings before. After the meal, they returned back to the library and took back the previous positions, but this time Jester had more confidence with her brushstrokes. Knowing that Caleb had been comfortable with the painting against his back gave the artist a new vigour in her work. Feeling the faster strokes Caleb found it easier to focus on the tome, the quicker strokes less stimulating, his skin used to the touch and strokes, getting through most of the tome before Jester finally felt happy with the piece. In total, she’d worked on the piece for six hours, small touch-ups towards the end beginning to stimulate the skin and the unexpected reaction from the wizard. He had waited for Jester to be happy, stayed still sitting with his tome while Jester made sure the piece dried, and finally began to move towards one of the mirrors.

“Remember this is my first time really painting on skin, but I think it looks pretty good, mumma would be impressed.” She smiled softly and lined up two mirrors in a way Caleb could see; revealing both.

Caleb stared stunned at the artwork across his back seeing a stunning sunset over the coast of Nicodranas. He could see boats on the water, clearly a view from the Lavish Chateau, seemingly something from Jester’s memory beautifully decorating his back. The sky had a beautiful shift from pink, to red to orange and as he watched the piece in the mirror he could see the ships rocking as if the ocean had waves and shadows of birds moving as if soaring on an ocean breeze. It was stunning, truly beautiful, and he couldn’t take his eyes off it as he felt her hand in his.

“Jester, this is, it is incredible. This is wonderful, amazingly so, you have painted something so beautiful. Something that almost rivals your own beauty.” He looked to her finally and smiled softly seeing her reaction. “Perhaps not quite so beautiful. This is truly incredible Jester.”

“Just like you Caleb, you are incredible, I just wished to show you something glorious.” She cupped his cheek gently and smiled softly. “Something to match what I see in you, although it’s not quite as incredible as you.”

He smiled softly and chuckled as he cupped her cheek and kissed the top of her head. He wanted to keep it there as long as he could. He knew he would need to wash it off to save staining the bedding in the night but for now he couldn’t help staring at the beautiful piece of art delicately decorating the skin on his back.


End file.
